Monument to King Tvrtko I

The statue

Dimitrijević modelled the king standing, with a cross and a sword; the figure was cast at the Ujević foundry in Zagreb and cost about EUR 55,000. The inscription on the round stone plinth reads "Kralj Stefan Tvrtko I Kotromanić, osnivač grada Herceg Novog" (King Stefan Tvrtko I Kotromanić, founder of the town of Herceg Novi). The idea came from citizens and local associations in 2002, and the municipal assembly decided to raise the monument in 2003; it took ten more years to the unveiling by the mayor on Sunday 27 October 2013, with a brass band and a short play in which actors appeared as Tvrtko and his mother, Queen Jelena.

Tvrtko I and the town he founded

In 1382 the Bosnian king Tvrtko I founded a new town in the bay of Topla as a rival to Dubrovnik in the salt trade, and named it Sveti Stefan. The name did not last: the town took its present name from Herceg Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, who held court here and died in 1466. Herceg Novi counts its age from Tvrtko's foundation, so 2013 was the town's 631st year. The sea fortress of Forte Mare belongs to Tvrtko's first town, and its Sea Gate keeps elements from that Bosnian period.

The older memorial at the clock tower

The 2013 statue is the second memorial to Tvrtko in the town. For the 600th anniversary in 1982 a bas-relief of the king seated on a stone chair was set on the clock tower (Sat kula), the gate of the Old Town. It carries a line from his charter to Dubrovnik in the Bosnian Cyrillic script (Bosančica) and a modern text saying that Tvrtko I, king of the Serbs and of Bosnia, the Littoral and the Western Lands, laid the foundations of the town in May 1382. The relief is a short walk up the steps from the statue.

Getting there

Škver is on the waterfront below the Old Town, on the flat Pet Danica promenade; from the town centre it is about 800 m (9 minutes) on foot down through the Old Town, or along the shore from the beaches. Drive times without traffic to Herceg Novi: Igalo 3.6 km, about 7 minutes; Tivat 23 km, about 40 minutes; Kotor 33.1 km, about 53 minutes. Parking in the town is in zones; see the Herceg Novi page.

Nearby

• Forte Mare, the sea fortress directly above the square.
• Clock tower with the 1982 relief of Tvrtko.
• Kanli Kula at the top of the Old Town and Španjola on the hill above.
• Herceg Novi town museum.
• Other memorials and statues in Montenegro.